Stork baby delivery

The stork baby delivery service was working overtime to deliver these five babies to a nest in Burgenland, Austria, which experts are claiming is a sensation.

Stork expert Joachim Tajmel said: "I have once seen four storks born together, but five is really unique, it's great."

The quintuplet storks hatched out in the small Austrian village of Strem are just two weeks old and are yet to flee their nest.

Instead they enjoy looking at the view from their aerial nesting place. And waiting for their heard working parents to bring in fish, freshwater crabs and frogs.

The storks are expected to spread their wings and fly on their own by the middle of August - and will then migrate with their parents.

White Storks fly south from their summer breeding grounds in Europe in August and September, heading for Africa. There, they spend the winter on the savanna from Kenya and Uganda south to the Cape Province of South Africa

"In our region here in Austria we have great conditions for the storks, plenty of food that helps them survive and thrive even when there are five young."

Neighbour Marianne Geosits, who lives near the stork nest, is keeping a close eye on the hatchlings confimed nobody could remember ever having seen five babies in a single nest.

Adios El Bullli! 'World's best restaurant' serves up extravagant 49-course last supper as it closes its doors forever

The doors of El Bulli, one of the world's most famous restaurants, have finally closed leaving 50 lucky diners with the taste of 'clam meringue' and 'gorgonzola balloon' lingering on their tastebuds.

The few diners fortunate to eat at the three Michelin stars restaurant feasted on a 49-course menu which dazzled their palates with gastronomical delights including a 'golden egg' and 'icy quinoa of duck fois-gras'.

Owner and father of molecular gastronomy Ferran Adrià shocked the culinary world in January 2010 with his decision to close his famed kitchen, which is nestled on the Costa Brava bay in Spain.

Closing the kitchen doors: The famed restaurant will now become a 'centre for creativity' under the name the elBulli foundation

The alchemist and his 70 chefs have delighted diners from around the globe with their exotic food composed of gels, foams, shavings and emulsifiers, and have been awarded the title of 'world's best restaurant' five times.

Delighted diners began their meal with a seemingly normal dry Martini - but was actually a dish composing of a spherical globule of reconstituted olive, placed on the tongue and then spritzed with atomised gin and vermouth, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Alphabet soup with a difference had delighted diners at El Bulli in the past

Foodies will no longer be able to enjoy air of honey with flowers and pistachio nuts as prepared at the El Bulli restaurant, Spain

They were given 'smoked mousse' which was actually a tobacco-flavoured foam and 'flowers paper', which transpired to be a candyfloss sheet with roses impressed on to it.

Millions of foodies have been left heartbroken as they will never get to sample the unique dishes, as Mr Adrià is now focusing on converting the picturesque site of his restaurant in Cala Montjoi into the elBulli Foundation.

What initially started in 1961 as a site for a mini-golf course owned by Doctor Hans Schilling and his wife Marketta, has been transformed into the world's centre of truly-creative cooking.

The couple turned their mini-golf course into a humble beach bar with a thatched roof, naming their restaurant after their French bulldogs, who are known as 'el bulli'.

By 1964 the pair had installed a kitchen and Dr Schilling's interest in gastronomy led to the kitchen offering more elaborate dishes.

But since 1994 increasingly unusual techniques have been dabbled with at the restaurant, thanks to Mr Adrià.

Its popularity swelled, with one than one million people annually clamouring to eat at the tables and having to enter a lottery.

It would only sit for one setting a day and closed for six months in the winter.

But only 8,000 people a year were selected and in exchange £240, diners would be treated to a set menu, consisting of up to 50 dishes but not including wine.

Now the acclaimed restaurant will be transformed into a on 'gastronomic think tank' and a centre focusing on stretching the boundaries of the experimental cuisine.

Chefs will be able to discuss their ideas, with many ambitious cooks hoping to emulate the success of Mr Adrià.

The alchemist, often branded a 'genius' and regarded as an icon for experimental chefs like the UK's Heston Blumenthalm, had a humble start.

In August 1983 he arrived on work experience for one month while on leave from his military service.

The promising chef was invited to return the in March 1984 as chef de partie and accepted, quickly rising through the ranks to become joint chef de cuisine along with Christian Lutaud.

By 1987 he was left on his own as chef de cuisine and in while participating in a demonstration by super chef Jacques Maximin in Cannes, Mr Adrià hears the phrase 'Creativity means not copying', which completely changes his conception of cooking.

Mr Adrià has completely changed modern cuisine, but has now closed El Bulli, pictured, to open a creative centre for cooking

Friday, July 29, 2011

You couldn't fit this on your mantelpiece! World's largest vase sells for over £10,000

At 6ft 3ins this colossus vase towers over most humans, needs hundreds of flowers to fill it and is likely to destroy your mantelpiece.

Made by Royal Doulton, it is the largest ever made and was snapped up at auction in the U.S. for £10,625.

Dating from the late 19th century it is thought that the decorative piece was commissioned for an Indian Maharajah who would have paid a princely sum of £3,500.

This towering Royal Doulton vase that stands an astonishing 6ft 3ins high, made over £10,000 at auction

It is adorned with intricate floral designs by Florence Lewis - one of the Lambeth studio’s most skilled artists.

The ceramic - sporting dahlias among bamboo and exotic foliage - was included in the European furniture and decorative arts sale which took place at Skinner's auction house in Massachusetts this month.

Stuart Slavid, from the saleroom, said that the antique came through a dealer who acquired it in a private home: 'It had previously been purchased in a London sale in the 1980s.

'It's function is it's beauty as an art form and I personally believe the artistry translates better from a slight distance. The workmanship is first rate.'

Dating from the late 19th century it is thought that the decorative piece was commissioned for an Indian Maharajah (Maharajah Duleep Singh, 1852, by George Beechey)

Making it easier to transport the rare piece was manufactured in five separate pieces, with the collar, belly, base and handles slotting together and held together by its weight.

It is unknown if the collectable was ever delivered to the Indian Palace and it is believed that three similar pieces were also made.

Mr Slavid added: 'It is a Royal Doulton Lambeth faience floor vase and its mate was probably the centrepiece of the Doulton Exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair and was probably not manufactured as much for sale but as a show stopper at the fair.'

I personally believe the artistry translates better from a slight distance

The vase exhibited in Chicago's World Fair in 1893 is now at the Museum of Science and Industry in the city.

Faience pottery - now an ancient tradition - is created from clay earthenware with a specific glaze applied to make it a suitable surface to paint on and was a popular technique used by artists at the London-based factory.

John Sparks, the principal of the Lambeth School of Art in the 19th century, described Florence Lewis’ work: 'She has a remarkable power of design and a skill in painting that is seldom surpassed... Whether she is working out a large design or a small tile her energy and power are equally apparent.'

Founded by John Doulton in around 1815, Royal Doulton began life in London before moving to the to new headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in the 1950s.

In 2009 the prestigious pottery went into administration and was bought out by another firm which has continued using the name.

Loch Ness monster is more fact than fiction claims paleontologist

The Loch Ness monster may be more fact than fiction, one of the UK's top dinosaur experts has claimed.

Artist's impression of a plesiosaurPhoto: BNPS

7:00AM BST 28 Jul 2011

Paleontologist Dr Darren Naish reckons there have been too many sightings for 'Nessie' to be a hoax.

Boffin Dr Naish, who lectures at the University of Portsmouth, said: "The huge number of 'sea monster' sightings now on record cant all be explained away as mistakes, sightings of known animals or hoaxes.

"At least some of the better ones some of them made by trained naturalists and such probably are descriptions of encounters with real, unknown animals.

"Because large marine animals continue to be discovered various new whale and shark species have been named in recent years the idea that such species might await discovery is, at the very least, plausible."

Some experts reckon Nessie is a plesiosaur - a long-necked reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

But Dr Naish and another dino expert dismissed this idea in speeches at a conference, 'Cryptozoology: Science or Pseudoscience?', in London.

Dr Charles Paxton, of the University of St Andrews, said: "If there are prehistoric animals alive today it would imply that theres something very wrong with our understanding of the fossil record."

Dr Paxton added it could not be assumed all large animals living in the oceans have been discovered.

He said: "If the criteria is solely bigness, then this is not the case.

"In 1995 a benthic ray, which lives on the ocean floor, was found that measured 3.42 metres and eight large marine species have been discovered in the past 20 years."

Cryptozoology is the study of hidden animals or the search for creatures whose existence has not been proved.

There have been hundreds of 'sightings' of the Loch Ness monster since 1933 in the lake, which is 22.5 miles long and up to one-and-a-half miles wide and 754ft deep.

The fossil of a rare, prehistoric marine reptile that is likely the most complete remnant of the creature ever found in North America has been discovered by scientists in Alaska.

The nearly-complete fossilised skeleton is of a thalattosaur, a long-tailed sea creature that plied warm, shallow waters in the early days of dinosaurs and became extinct at the end of the Triassic period some 200million years ago.

The discovery of the fossil, found during an extreme low tide along the shore of the Tongass National Forest, was announced this week by the Museum Of The North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Nearly complete: The fossilised skeleton of a thalattosaur, a long-tailed sea creature that plied warm, shallow waters in the early days of dinosaurs and became extinct at the end of the Triassic period some 200million years ago, was found during an extreme low tide along the shore of Alaska's Tongass National Forest

Dr Jim Baichtal, the U.S. Forest Service's Tongass geologist and part of the discovery team, said: 'We were just having our morning coffee out on the outcropping when somebody said, "What's that?"'

Geologists had been conducting field surveys at the site when the fossil was spotted.

Unlike most thalattosaur discoveries, which are fossilised remnants of individual bones and bone fragments, this specimen appeared to be a nearly full skeleton.

Dr Baichtal said: 'In North America, this may be the most articulated specimen that we have right now.'

Scientists excavated the fossil in June and have been studying it to determine whether it represents a previously unknown species.

There are only about a dozen full thalattosaur specimens in the world, Dr Baichtal said. 'So the probability of this being something that wasn't seen before is probably pretty high.'

The find is likely the most northern discovery as well, he said. The fossil was found near the Tlingit Indian village of Kake in south-east Alaska.

Other thalattosaur discoveries have been made in British Columbia, Canada, as well as in Nevada and the Alps, although the best finds have been made in China, he said.

At the time this particular animal was trapped in sediment, about 200million to 220million years ago, the site was close to the equator and tropical.

'This was a warm, volcanic island with reefs surrounding it,' similar to Hawaii, Dr Baichtal said. Plate tectonics eventually sent the site drifting north to its current location in Alaska.

Hunting: Thalattosaurs inhabited the seas for about 30million years, a relatively brief time geologically

The fossil from the Tongass beach is now at the Museum of the North, where scientists will do further work to separate the rock from the bone.

Thalattosaurs inhabited the seas for about 30million years, a relatively brief time geologically, said Pat Druckenmiller, of the Museum of the North. They measured about 3ft to 10ft long, with half to a third of that taken up by the tail.

'The rest of its body would be kind of reminiscent of a big lizard,' Dr Druckenmiller said, with legs modified to work as paddles.

Some had no teeth, some had pointy teeth that might have been useful for spearing fish, and some had flat teeth that might have been used to crush shells, he added.

The Alaska fossil appears to include the outline of soft-body tissue that surrounded the bone.

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